


In the Beginning

by sageness



Category: Canadian 6 Degrees, Hard Core Logo (1996)
Genre: Canon - Movie, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-03
Updated: 2006-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-03 05:36:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sageness/pseuds/sageness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe and Billy in Vancouver, 1975.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Beginning

  


In Grade 7, Joe Mulgrew called Billy Boisy a nancy boy in the schoolyard. Billy tackled him, pummeled his face bloody, and got suspended for three days.

Joe got in one good punch, and it broke Billy's nose.

The next Tuesday, Joe put his tray down across from Billy's at lunch. Billy eyed him from above his bandages. When the bell rang, Joe grunted something inaudible and headed toward the gym. Billy put his tray away and went to Life Science.

Wednesday, Joe sat down across from him again. He didn't talk to Billy, but he called the boy next to him a dumbshit for saying _Serpico_ was a better movie than _Godfather II_. Billy watched Alex bluster and fake while Joe talked a blue streak right over him. Finally Alex left in a huff, Joe grinning in triumph, and Billy said, "How'd you get in, anyway?"

Joe's smile didn't falter. "Buy a ticket for something else, go take a leak, and go in when the previews are on."

"That works?"

"When it's crowded and nobody there knows you, sure."

Billy grunted and went back to his institutional meatloaf.

  
*

Like a fungus, Joe kept coming back.

The tape came off Billy's nose a couple of days later. At lunch Joe said, "You looked better when I couldn't see your face."

Billy said, "Suck it."

Joe said, "You kiss your mama with that mouth, Billy-boy?"

Billy flipped him off, but Joe grabbed his hand and bent his finger back. Billy yelled, "Cut it out, asswipe!"

Joe let go when one of the vice-principals started lumbering over in their direction. Joe smiled and said, "Arm-wrestling." Billy snorted. When the bell rang, he left without a word.

  
*

A week later, Joe was at Billy's locker at the end of the day. He said, "Come to Woolco with me."

Billy said, "Why?"

Joe said, "Who cares why, just do it."

Billy rubbed the back of his head and tried to think of a reason to say no. He couldn't.

"Come on," Joe said.

Billy shrugged and said, "I gotta be home by five."

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. Let's go."

At Woolco, they laughed at the cover of David Bowie's _Young Americans_ album. They made fun of Neil Young and Roxy Music. And they stared at the cover of Kiss' _Dressed to Kill_ with matching expressions of 'what the hell?' before breaking into uncontrollable giggles.

Joe swiped a pack of cards while Billy bought a pack of gum. On the sidewalk outside, Joe stole a piece and blew bubbles in the drizzling rain, jabbering on about Iggy and the Stooges and the stuff he'd heard about Iggy getting loaded and taking off all his clothes on stage.

Billy was pretty sure Joe was bullshitting him, but he didn't say anything. It was easier, and more entertaining, just to let Joe talk.

"See you tomorrow," Joe said at the bus stop where the #14 was just pulling up.

Billy lived on another route; his stop was another block up. "Later," he said, and turned away.

When he got home, he discovered that his entire pack of gum was gone, but he had a brand new deck of cards in his coat pocket…new, but opened, and missing the red Joker. "Asshole," he said with a laugh.

His mother was going to give him hell for not getting his chores done before she got home, but he didn't feel like it. He ignored the giant pile of overdue homework littering his bedroom floor, too. What he did was turn up The Who on his record player, sprawl out on his bed, and think about Joe. His funny, crazy, new friend Joe.


End file.
